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RACE WATCH

Criville is World Champion

Micklessness was marvelous in 1999. Robbed of the dominant figure in the 500cc Grands Prix, the best of the rest feasted on close competition and fun finishes that were hailed as a revival of the world’s premier motorcycle racing class.

Just one thing: The races were also slower. Without Mick Doohan there to stretch competitors’ legs and explore the outer reaches, the rest were too busy scrapping among themselves to set many new records.

Doohan, back after winning five titles straight, had started the 16-round season badly, his Repsol Honda NSR500 suffering from unpredictable handling. Problem fixed for the third race, he was going all-out to put his upstart rivals firmly back in their places during qualifying when he touched a white line and went flying into a crash barrier at nearly 90 mph. Multiple fractures kept him out for the rest of the year, and probably also ended a remarkable career-indeed, an era of racing.

There already had been some changes by the time it happened. First off, son-of-a-legend Kenny Roberts had dropped the “Junior” tag, left his dad’s ill-starred Modenas team and joined Suzuki, the smallest factory squad badly in need of a leg up. Working with ex-Yamaha, ex-Modenas engineer Warren Willing, and bristling with determination, Kenny won the first two races of the season straight up.

In the third race, he was deep in the pack after a collision with his teammate Nobu Aoki. Then, at the fourth round, Roberts was disputing the lead with Doohan’s teammate Alex Criville, whose Honda was clearly faster down the long Paul Ricard straight, when he crashed out. It took him months to admit he should rather have taken a safe second.

The die was cast. Criville was on a surge. He won four races in a row, crashed out in Assen, but bounced right back to win the next round in Britain. From then on, he played it safe, having amassed a significant points lead over Roberts.

Kenny, meanwhile, had been stricken with mid-race problems, only fully solved late in the year when the team switched from Showa to the Öhlins suspension he and Willing knew and preferred. Even so, he still had a chance in Australia, where Criville fell and hurt his hand in practice while California resident Roberts utterly dominated. But that was only until his rear tire shed a chunk four laps from the end, while he was miles in the lead. More tire trouble at the next round in South Africa saw him drop to third overall, regaining second from Tady Okada only with a fine win at the last round in Argentina.

Criville won six races, Kenny four, with a refreshing variety of other winners after five years of one-man domination-three victories went to Okada, one each to Regis Laconi, Norick Abe and Max Biaggi.

Biaggi’s win came late, after a disappointing season for Yamaha, which had signed the big-name rider and ranking Spaniard Carlos Checa, as well as regaining Marlboro backing, only to suffer twitchy roadholding and a spate of crashes-Checa hit the ground some 30 times, amazingly without injury. Only at the end did the new Yamahas add good overall balance to the speed they had found this year (almost always faster than the Hondas) to finish the season on a more cheery note.

Not so Modenas, whose feisty threecylinder challenger needs an engine redesign to regain its handling advantage, but has nobody to pay for it. Out of sponsors, Kenny Roberts Sr. does not expect to continue next season.

MuZ, on the other hand, had a great year. The all-European V-Four, using a Swiss ex-sidecar engine in a Britishbuilt chassis, claimed two pole positions and may soon be heading toward better race results. If only they can find riders: MuZ started the year with talented hit-and-miss man Luca Cadalora, finished with bad boy Anthony Gobert (until, surprise, surprise, he didn’t turn up for the last race), though Dutchman Jurgen van den Goorbergh was a solid presence all year.

Tetsuya Harada had some good runs on the lightweight V-Twin Aprilia, earning pole at Mugello and challenging for the rostrum, before finally taking third place at Donington Park. But it was a dreadful year for the Honda V-Twins, with a handful of privateers taking the stragglers’ role.

Popular 20-year-old showman Valentino Rossi dominated the 250cc class on his factory Aprilia, with only Tohru Ukawa and his Honda offering any sort of challenge. Rossi won nine races, Ukawa just two. Second Honda rider Loris Capirossi was third overall with three wins, GP rookie Shinya Nakano a close fourth. Japanese champion at 21, Nakano led Yamaha’s return to the class with a win at home; Chesterfield teammate Olivier Jacque also won one race after coming back from injury.

Spaniard Emilio Alzamora won the 125cc title without a single race win on his Honda. Second-placed Marco Melandri, just 17, had won five races, but missed out early in the season because of injury. The only other World Champion not to win a race during his victorious season was another Spaniard, Manuel Herreros, 80cc champion of 1989. -Michael Scott